Star’s Beads

I am a new jewelry maker/​beader (beach chic bohemian style) and love this shop. They sell high quality loose and stranded beads. I have also gone to beadazzled and found them to be mUCh more expensive and not as high quality.
Very helpful staff.
Great consignment shop right next door!

Went here to get beads to make my girl friend a necklace. The NEW owners John and Kay are some of the best, friendliest, and customer oriented people I have come across in the business field. Their beads were VERY affordable and since silver and gold are down right now they even gave me a awesome deal on my clasp for it. I would recommend this bead shop over any other and would go back the next time I am in the area.

I attended one of the beginner classes after discovering them on Groupon and cannot say enough! I had never visited the store before, and the staff were very friendly and willing to address questions.
Parking: available behind the store (where they are located). It can be very difficult to find, but look for the Great Harvest Company and they are across the street from them.
Price: I don’t have a background in jewelry making, but think their prices are decent.
Staff: Again, I am a beginner and the staff were willing to work with each member of our class and address all of our questions. They assisted us when we had challenges with certain pieces, and showed us different techniques.
It seems like it would be a great place to have a «Ladies Day Out», church or girl scout group. :)

I’ve never had any problem with service at Star’s, but I’m not one who needs a lot of service and I’ve always gone on busy Saturdays where you can’t expect much service anyway.
The store is small and the beads are not generally much to get excited about. Totally adequate and pretty and all that, but nothing you can’t find elsewhere (though I am kicking myself for not picking up another Egyptian hammered gold pendant several years ago – haven’t seen such a thing anywhere else).
Star’s real focus is on clasps (which can be seen and purchased on the website) and for clasps, pendants, and such it is a really nice visit. They’re not cheap, but a sterling silver toggle clasp with nice workmanship details is never going to be cheap. She has pieces that are plain silver and gold, but also many lovely pieces inset with marcasite and semi-​precious gems. They are splurge items that really up the impact of a piece. I bought a peridot and marcasite sterling pendant to make a birthday necklace for myself several years ago and wear it at least weekly, and two really gorgeous toggle clasps (one marcasite and another with a sculpted rose).
I have never made use of it as I have way too many supplies of my own, but there is a table set up in the store with tools and space to work. I am almost positive there is an hourly rental fee or something to use the tools, but for someone who just wants to make one project or try it out I assume it’s a better bargain than having to buy a whole set of your own tools. I believe you can also get a little instructional help from staff as well and they might do bachelorette or birthday party groups.
Since this place is in the suburbs and not on the metro I don’t get there very often, but a trip to Nielsen’s Frozen Custard across the street helps ease the pain of the long and tedious drive.

Not impressed. There is no turnover in beads; ie it’s hard to find anything new in there.

i’ve been twice, and didn’t experience any rude staff. they were actually very nice and friendly. i don’t know if it had anything to do with it being a busy day in the store, but i didn’t have any problems.
the place is pretty small, but i find anything i need there. definitely a much more varied choice in beads and hardware, compared to michael’s or a.c. moore.
there are hardly any stores around here that cater to JUST jewelry making, so this place is a pretty good, considering.

I’ve gone a couple of times but I’m not too impressed. The bead selection does not change frequently and it’s a little pricey for less than high quality beads. I didn’t have a bad experience with the staff, I think it depends on who’s helping. I would recommend instead the jewelry/​bead shows that come to fairfax/​DC once in awhile or online at firemoutaingems or artbeads.

I went to this store a few times and never bought anything because I was appalled by the rudeness of the staff. Pretty beads, but the unfriendly workers ruin the fun.